Blessings

Blessings
by Laura Story

We pray for blessings, we pray for peace.
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep.
We pray for healing, prosperity.
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering.

All the while, You hear each spoken need. 
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things.


Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops?
What if your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near?

What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise?


We pray for wisdom, Your voice to hear.
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near.
We doubt Your goodness, we doubt Your love.
As if every promise from Your word is not enough.

All the while You hear each desperate plea.
And long that we’d have faith to believe.


Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops?
What if your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near?

What if trials of this life, are Your mercies in disguise?


When friends betray us, when darkness seems to win;
We know that pain reminds this heart, that this is not, this is not our home.
It’s not our home.


Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops?
What if your healing comes through tears?
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You’re near?

What if my greatest disappointments, or the aching of this life;
Is a revealing of greater thirst that this world can’t satisfy?

And what if trials of this life, the rain, the storms, the hardest nights;
Are Your mercies in disguise?

The Men in White

Julie & I were invited recently to speak & sing at a men’s prison in Dayton, TX.  We accepted the invitation, not knowing what to expect, but knowing that where God sends us, He prepares the way.  Several men from our church go to the prison on a regular basis to hold Bible study with the men.  When we arrived we had to go through several checkpoints and give up our ID, etc.  We couldn’t take anything into the unit with us.  We had several volunteers from our church that were there with us.  Some of the men brought their wives and it was nice to have other women in the group. 

 When we walked into the large gym, a praise band of inmates was playing and singing.  It was wonderful to hear their strong voices singing and praising God.  The gym filled quickly with close to 200 men.  There were men of all races, ages, and sizes, but the one thing that was the same about all of them is that they were all dressed in white.  Before long it was time for Julie & me to share our story with them.  We sang a song and then Julie spoke first.  As Julie spoke I watched as big strong tough men became disarmed.  Here was a little 3 ft tall blind lady with a smile bigger than herself, sharing about overcoming difficulties in life, with humor and grace.  I spoke next, sharing that we are all broken, and about the challenges in my life and how I have learned to trust God in everything.  I told them you can’t trust someone you don’t know.  I encouraged them that if they didn’t know God, it was time to be introduced to Him.  They listened intently to every word we said, and responded almost overwhelmingly with laughter, clapping and general acceptance.  When we finished our last song, they clapped for what seemed like an eternity.  After a short message from one of our pastors, several men accepted Christ into their lives that night.  Where GOD leads, he prepares the way!

In the days that followed, we started receiving reports back from the men that go minister at the prison regularly. One email I received said the following: 

“The men at Hightower were still talking and buzzing last night.  Most of the men in our Faith Based Dorm program were in attendance and many told of the hope that your testimonies gave them.  Everyone wanted to know when are you coming back? 

 

On Tuesday night volunteers from Christ Church United Methodist in the Woodlands hold a Discipleship Bible Study Class, as we were leaving last night, they stopped us and told us how much your testimonies and singing had meant to the men in their class.  Said they spent 25 minutes talking about Karen and Julie.

 

When Tony and I went in yesterday we saw the Warden, and he too, commented on the buzz going around Hightower all day tuesday.  Everywhere he went the inmates were talking about Karen and Julie.

 

The smallest person to ever speak at Hightower made the largest impression ever.  Much good  has already come from your willingness to give of yourself for God’s glory.  More will be forthcoming.”

 

Only 3 of the 5 buildings had a chance to come that night, as the gym was full.  We have been invited to return in June to speak & sing again.  I’m praying that  the ones that couldn’t come last time will be moved to come.  To think that God can take 2 “church ladies” and bring them into a room full of ”men in white” and remove all barriers so that HIS love can flow to all of us, is a miraculous thing.  When I looked out at the sea of faces of the “men in white”, I saw someone’s son, husband, father……..but most of all I saw HIS child, and God’s love for them filled my heart.  I am continuously amazed at HIS grace for all of us!

 

 

A Mother’s heart

Karen here…..I want to share something that happened yesterday that warmed my heart.  Our friend, Carla McDougal invited us to come and participate in her Bible Study group in the Woodlands.  Carla is a fabulous woman of God who heads up a women’s ministry called Reflective Life Ministries, and  has written a wonderful Bible Study called “Reflecting Him”.  The group of ladies that she is teaching in her home church is quite large.  They were studying this week on the 5 senses.  Since Julie is blind and her other senses are greatly enhanced, Carla wanted to interview her and have her sing for the women.  As I watched Julie being interviewed and then ministering in song with “Father’s Eyes”, my heart was warmed.  It took me back to the days when she was very young and my Mother’s heart ached with concern for what the future held for her.  Being blind was a big enough challenge without being a little person too.  How would the world accept and treat my little girl?  As I watched her yesterday I realized that with God’s guidance Julie has created her own unique niche in the world.  I watched as the women responded to her with admiration and warmth in their eyes…some with tears.  You see, Julie has found that special place that we all must find….security in the Father’s arms.  No disability, or any other trial of life can remove her from that place.  Because she knows who she is, in God, she can be totally comfortable in her own skin.  He created her to be the one of a kind unique individual that she is for his purposes and she always says, ” if God can use me more for his glory as a 3 ft tall blind person, then I’m all in”.  All of us could fill in the blank regarding whatever we face in our lives.  “If God can use me more because of ____________________, then I’m all in”.  Sometimes I think my daughter has taught me so much more than I’ve ever taught her.

A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO MISSOURI!

Julie here!
Hey ya’ll! Okay, so my last post said “I’m planning to write an update in the next few days,” and well, umm, that was in January. Lol. But, am I going to feel guilty about that? The Julie of 2009 would be bogged down with heaps of guilt for my bad bloggy behavior. But the Julie of today says, no way Jose! I have decided that I am only going to write when inspiration hits me and I get the undeniable urge to put words on my computer screen. Believe you me, I have tried and tried to force myself to write, and I’ll tell you what. IT DOES NOT! WORK! Whether it’s this blog, or the book that I have been working on for a few years, I am learning that when I put pressure on myself to be creative and write, it just ain’t gonna happen! So, to the many of you who have asked me “How’s your book coming? You’re still working on it, right?” I want to say, “yes.” However, I am no longer in a hurry like I used to be. There is no deadline, and I am letting go of the voice in my head that used to tell me, “Finish your book soon, or you have failed!” (Seriously, ya’ll. Abba Father has been teaching me so much about Himself, and about myself lately, it’s crazy. It’s amazing how deeply He can speak into my life when I have the time to pray and reflect. That’s one advantage of having a quiet, low key life.)

All right, so let’s change the subject before I start preaching a sermon and getting too deep on you. First I want to tell you that I think there is a mosquito in here with me. I really do try to love all of God’s creatures, but those little blood thirsty critters fall under the “difficult to love” category for me. So, if you suddenly start seeing a bunch of random letters in here, just know that it’s probably me trying to administer a little tough love. (Whack, whack!)

Have you ever been traveling somewhere and your trip didn’t go exactly as planned? Yeah, me too. In fact, my dear Mom and I had one of those days last week. The two of us decided to go to Missouri to visit our friends during Spring Break. Now, these are not your average, run-of-the-mill, every day kinds of friends. These precious people have been our closest allies since I was about 3 years old. They are listed under the heading of “Friends that are more like family.” I always marvel at Abba’s amazing plan. As I think about how He so skillfully and lovingly puzzled us together, my heart just bounces with joy. The cool thing is that my mom’s best friend Jan, and my best friend Tiffany, are also mother and daughter. And Tiffany’s daughter, Alyssa, is like a neice to me. So, we’re all connected in a deep, amazing friendship, and when we are together, we just turn into one big, giggly, incredible family. We try to visit AT LEAST once a year, and possibly more than that if it’s at all feasible.

Okay, so we have driven to Missouri in the past, but this time we decided to fly because we didn’t have as much time to travel. We figured that a half a day trip in the sky would be easier than a twelve hour trip on the highway. We figured wrong. It ended up taking us 16 hours to get from Houston to Missouri. Nope, not kidding. But, don’t worry. My darling Mom and I are almost always ready for an adventure. Now, I do confess that on days like this, there are moments when our sweet, smiling faces don’t look so sweet and smiley. We have our weak moments too, so don’t entertain any goofy ideas that Mom and I are perfect little angels. We are regular earthlings just like you. But, I will say that for the most part, both of us have been blessed with that annoying tendency to look on the bright side as we hold on to our glasses that are half full of sunshine.

As we sat on our first flight of the day that would take us to Denver, we had our seat belts securely fastened low and tight across our laps, and our seat backs and tray tables were in their full upright and locked positions. Our part of the bargain was complete, so we were waiting for Mr. Pilot Man to start up the plane and get our show on the road. As we sat parked at the gate, we heard a lovely beeping sound that made me think someone had forgotten to take the alarm tag thingy off their new shirt before walking out of the store. I hoped that it was a “normal airplane sound”, but my hopes were dashed as the flight attendant made the announcement that every traveler fears.

“There’s a problem with the plane. The left falangy isn’t working.” (If you’re a fan of the show Friends, you might recognize that reference.)

“We won’t know anything for at least an hour.”

At that moment, we knew we were going to have an interesting day. We had less than an hour layover in Denver, which meant we would most definitely miss our connecting flight. So, we had a lovely chat with a man named Rafael who told us that the next flight out of Denver wouldn’t be until 8:30 P.M. Now, I forgot to mention that this all took place at 7:30 A.M. So, anyhoo, to make a very long story short, we decided to take a 2 o’clock flight out of Houston so we would have less time to wait around in Denver.

Are you wondering if I have a point to this fascinating anecdote? I do, I promise. I’m getting there now.

So, as Mom and I started to realize that our day had just gotten very complicated, we were a teensy bit discouraged. But here’s the cool part. All of a sudden, I heard a little whisper in my spirit. It just felt like a little nudge. It said, “Your steps are ordered, Julie. Your steps are ordered.” My heart jumped as I considered what this meant. My Abba Father was gently reminding me that He always knows exactly where I am, and He is the amazing conductor of this orchestra that I am a part of. He is an expert at coordinating things, and He knows how to fit the pieces together just right. There may be some reason that things don’t go the way we plan, and sometimes there is a beautiful Divine appointment that He is organizing behind the scenes. Now, as I thought of this, I had no idea that my darling Mom was having a similar message whispered to her. She leaned down and told me, “God just said that I need to stop worrying about my agenda for the day, and start thinking about His.” Wow, yall, that blew me away.

So, as Mom and I made our way through the day, we became more aware of the people we were meeting, and the things we were doing. Even though we were a little frustrated at the fact that we would be arriving in Missouri at 10 P.M. rather than 1 P.M, I actually started to get a little excited as I wondered what my Papa God was up to. Out of no where, I just started thinking about all the good things that were happening on that day. First of all, we were not flying on an airplane that was broken. Or should I say, we were not crashing on an airplane that was broken. I don’t know about you, but “airplane crash” is not what I want written on my tomb stone. So I started saying thank you prayers for the wonderful mechanics who had discovered the problem before we left the gate, rather than leaving it as a surprise for us to discover at 37,000 feet above civilization. It’s my hope that I will never have to try out one of those fancy oxygen masks.

The next thing I thought of was, “Wow, look at all these people in the airport. Each of them has a story, and Papa loves each of them the same way He loves me. Maybe He and I can love on them together today. Maybe there is someone who needs a special hug from Papa.” Every person we encountered throughout the day made me wonder, “Is this the person?” So I started smiling at everyone, and hoping that somehow I could help make somebody’s day a little sweeter. We met so many friendly and precious people that we wouldn’t have met if our day had gone as planned.

We finally flew from Houston to Denver, and during our 3 hour layover, we treated ourselves to pizza and some TCBY. That almost made up for the crazy day we’d had! Yum! So, as we sat near the gate and waited for our flight to Missouri, I was still thinking about God’s message to us that morning. The day was coming to a close, and nothing too exciting had happened. Now, I do know that sometimes God does big things without us even knowing what He’s done. We won’t know the whole story until that day in Heaven when we will finally see all the little pieces that He’s been sewing together throughout these many years. Perhaps one small moment in time, one smile at a stranger, one kind gesture has the power to impact someone for eternity. Who knows? So I was completely at peace knowing that God was still on His throne, paintbrush in hand, putting little splashes of paint here and there to create His grand masterpiece. And all of a sudden…

THERE SHE WAS!

I knew it was her the minute she came around the corner. I just had this feeling that she was our Divine Appointment. I wasn’t the only one who noticed her, either. It was almost impossible to ignore this poor young woman with the three screaming children as she made her way through the airport carrying three gigantic pieces of luggage, baby gear, etc. She had a 3 year old, a 2 year old and a 6 month old, and it was very apparent that they were at the end of their rapidly fraying rope. The frazzled mother and her trio of yelling youngsters came to sit near us in the airport terminal, and we overheard her talking on her cell phone, telling the person on the other end what a terrible day it had been. My heart ached for her, and I knew Papa’s heart must have been aching too.

Mom and I boarded the plane, and a few minutes later, the mother and her 3 tiny girls came and sat in the row of seats directly in front of us. Seriously, yall! What are the odds? Now, the interesting thing for me was that I know God has been slowly changing me on the inside, because I did not have one negative thought in my head about this family! The old Julie would have thought, “Aw man! Why do we have to sit behind these screeching babies? Where is the father anyway? Can’t she do something to make them settle down?” But the only thoughts I had were thoughts of compassion and love for these girls. “What can we do to help? Is there anything in my purse that might help entertain them?”

Mom offered to hold the 6 month old while they all got situated, and the mother was very grateful. We tried our best to help them throughout the flight, and that included my dear Mom holding the tiny baby for the majority of the time. The two bigger girls took turns screaming, crying, unbuckling themselves, and standing up in their seats. It was total insanity, let me tell you. Part of the problem was that since it was a small plane, one of the girls had to sit across the aisle from her mother which made it much more difficult on them. The 2 year old was the crankiest, and her screams were probably heard by everyone on the ground as we flew overhead. Oddly enough, that little girl’s name was Serenity. No, I’m not joking. Her big sister’s name is Faith, and her baby sister’s name is Charity.

In the rare moments when she wasn’t telling her girls to sit down and buckle up, we talked to this poor mother and heard a little about their day. This young woman had never been on an airplane before in her life, and my guess is that after this trip, she will not voluntarily fly on another one! A member of her family had talked her into taking this trip to surprise her grandmother for her 80th birthday. For some odd reason, she had flown from Portland to Phoenix, to Denver to Missouri. That sounds like a rough trip for an average person, not to mention a first time flyer with three chickadees in toe! She was so overwhelmed and exhausted, and by the time we landed, she was in tears. We did what we could to encourage her, and as we said goodbye, she kept repeating, “God bless you!”

What strikes me most about this story is how much our Heavenly Papa really loves us. He knew how totally overwhelmed this woman was going to be by the end of her day, and perhaps she had been praying for some help. So, He rearranged a few little details of our travel plans so that Mom and I could be there for her, because her life is important to Him. Think about how differently things might have gone if Mom and I were not the ones sitting behind that little family. It could have been two grumpy old geezers sitting in those seats, and they might have said something nasty and made things worse. I’m so glad we paid attention to the gentle nudges and were not too busy thinking about our own troubles to look around and notice other people. I’m so honored and grateful that God invited us to work alongside Him on that day. It feels so incredible to take part in what He’s doing. Maybe, just maybe, He will invite us to do it again sometime.

Love like a child!

I have possibly the world’s most beautiful grand daughter!  Ashlynne is turning 3 in May.  Everytime I see her and spend time with her, she seems to have gotten cuter and sweeter.  Julie & I get to babysit her quite often.  She is a very active and busy little girl that rarely slows down for anything.  Not too long ago, we were at her house babysitting her.  We were playing actively as we always do.  Suddenly, out of the blue, she said “Mimi, I love you.”  Now, she had never said it to me before completely on her own with no prompting.  I was so startled that I said, “what did you say?”  She said, “I love you, Mimi” and this time she put her little hand on my cheek.  My heart melted into a little puddle on the floor and only another grand mother could understand what feelings I had at that moment.  It meant so much to me that she had offered her love, without prompting, completely of her own free will.

Some time later, as I was recalling that moment, God spoke to me and showed me that he feels the same way when we come to him and tell him we love him….no prompting, not looking for anything in return, just expressing our love to him of our own free will.  How often are we so busy running from one thing to the next, forgetting that he’s there all the time, waiting for us to come to him and just say “Daddy God, I love you”.  His love flows freely to us, unconditionally.  Once we can embrace that love and accept it for our own lives, it’s easier to express it to others.  We don’t have to be good enough, perform just right, or say all the right things.   He loves us just because we’re his creation.  We’re his child, and he melts when we say “I love you”.   Next time your child or grand child expresses their love to you, remember that Daddy God longs for you to do the same.

OUR BROKEN LIVES

Karen here….I’ve been going to a lot of luncheons recently.  I’m not sure why, just seems like it’s that time of year and it’s worked out that way.  I was standing in line at the buffet at one of those luncheons a few days ago.  I started a conversation with the woman behind me.  I commented on her beautiful necklace.  She informed me that it hadn’t always been in it’s present form.  When I inquired further, she told me the story of how in her closet one day, she was getting ready and attempting to put on the necklace, when it broke and the beads went in all directions.  She did her best to gather up all the beads she could find and took it to a friend of hers to try to repair it.  When she got it back her friend had put it back together in a much more beautiful and unique way.

I said to her “there’s a life lesson in that story”.  She looked at me rather confused.  I went on to explain that when our lives fall apart and all we see are the broken pieces…God can help us gather them up and he can put our life back together in a much more beautiful and pleasing way than it ever was before.  I know, because I’ve experienced that first hand.  I think she was a little startled that I suddenly went “deep” on her.

If you’re wondering what happened to the life you knew…..put it in God’s hands and wait and see what he does to make it even more beautiful.

What It’s all About!

Hello there, my friend!

Julie here. How are things going for you today? I hope everything is groovy. Wow, that’s a word I don’t use too often. Groovy? Where did that come from?

So, I’ve decided that since it’s been so long since I’ve actually written anything interesting, I owe you a serious update on what’s been going on in my neck of the woods. Now the question is: where do I start? Ummm… Let me think.

Okay, here I go. Life has been good lately. Mom and I have been able to speak to some church women’s groups in the last couple of weeks. It’s been an incredible experience! Mom and I have both heard Father asking us to share our stories with women, and we both feel so humbled that He actually wants to use us to touch their hearts. We do tag-team speaking, and we also use music to try and bring our message to life. I love hearing Mom share her story with these precious ladies, because she is so willing to be totally transparent. She just lays it all out there, never holding anything back. That’s something I think is seriously lacking in our churches today. We need to learn how to be real people again. Can you imagine how much our relationships with each other could improve if we would all just take off our masks? It’s so neat to see the women respond to Mom’s open, honest heart. We recently spoke at a church where they allowed us to use a small quiet room to talk with the women individually after we finished our presentation. They were also going to eat a pot luck dinner at the same time, so we honestly didn’t expect many ladies to come to the room where we were waiting. (The food smelled pretty delicious, so we assumed that taste buds and growling tummies would trump their desire to talk to us!) We went to our little room, and we were shocked at the number of women who came to visit. One by one they filed in, bringing with them their heavy hearts and unique struggles. It was so incredible to talk with them one on one, to give them encouragement, and to pray with them. We met single mothers, women who had experienced terrible tragedies, mothers who have children with special needs, and women with all kinds of other battles to fight. For an hour and a half, we talked, hugged and cried with them. When we left that night, Mom and I both agreed that this is the reason we do what we do.
“You know,” Mom said, “My life doesn’t seem all that special to me. I get up every morning and just live one moment at a time. It’s nothing that unique. It’s so humbling that God can take my life experiences and use them to reach out to other women and encourage them.”
In other related news, Mom has begun taking a course on becoming a Christian counselor. It’s something she has always been interested in. We’re hoping the education will help her as she meets more women in need of love and support.

Well, my dear friend, I have tons of other writing topics bouncing around in my head. But, I’m going to save them for future posts. Right now my lovely Mother is finishing her dinner preparations. Her fabulous sweet potato fries are calling my name! I promise to be back soon with more updates. Have a spectacular day!

Where Have you Been??

Hello my dear bloggy friends,Well, I’m ashamed to admit that my last blog was written on July 4! Will you please forgive me for my lack of writing? I have lots of different excuses for my bad blog behavior, but I’m sure you don’t really want to hear them. Do you? Okay, I’ll just tell you one. I am a procrastinating perfectionist. Yep, that’s me. Practically every day over the last few months, I’ve been thinking, “Gee, I really need to update my blog.” But then I think, “Gee, I really don’t feel like doing that today.” And the problem is, the longer I put it off, the worse it gets. “Goodness! It’s been 3 months since my last post,so whatever I put up there next has to be really fabulous.” Thus the pressure builds to an unbearable level, and I begin to feel like I can never measure up to the high standard of literary genius that you’ve come to expect from this little blog of mine. But, recently, I stepped back and realized that the only one putting this pressure on me was, well… me. So, I am hereby releasing all of my guilt. This seems to be a theme that Papa and I have been exploring in my life lately. I am learning to let go of the need to perform well in order to be acceptable. And, when I let go of that need, He then replaces it with His incredible love and freedom. Ah, yes, sweet freedom. I am gradually learning that no matter what I do, and no matter what I don’t do, His love is secure and unchanging. I don’t have to do anything to earn it or keep it. I am loved. And so are you, my darling friend. When you let that sink in, everything changes. So there you have it—the reason I haven’t written lately. Now that the ice is broken, I’m hoping that I’ll be returning much more often to provide you with more updates and amusement. I really do have a lot to write about! I pray your day is filled with joy, and that all is right with your world. I’m so glad I’m back! I’ve missed you! —

Ode to Air Conditioning

This is Julie here….First, I’d like to say Happy 4th of July to everyone!! Please be
careful with all of those fireworks! Those sparklers can be
dangerous!

Well, can you believe it? We’re already in the middle of summer! The
hottest months of the year are upon us here in the US. Where I live,
we’ve been setting records with our unusually high temperatures. Not
too long ago, they declared a “heat emergency” because we had so many
days in a row with temperatures soaring above 100 degrees! It’s on
these sweltering, humid days that I say extra “thank you” prayers for
our air conditioner. Ah, yes, that amazing, incredible, brilliant
invention that makes life so wonderful! I don’t know how I could ever
live without it.
Hey, that’s a good segue into the story I’m about to tell you!
So, last night I was just playing around on my computer, doing nothing
special, when I started to feel a little on the warm side. At first I
thought it was just my imagination. So I turned on the ceiling fan
and didn’t think much more about it. A few minutes later, I noticed
that the room wasn’t getting any cooler, so I started to get nervous.
I took a walk around the house to see how the other areas felt, and I
discovered that all of the upstairs rooms were quite warm. The AC was
on, but it was just blowing hot air. I ran downstairs to alert my
dear mother of the problem, and she came up to investigate. She told
me that the temperature upstairs was registering at 84 degrees! She
went ahead and turned the air off completely, and went back downstairs
to call the AC repair guys. Of course, no one would be coming out to
fix it until at least Monday. Such wonderful timing!
“Why do things like this always happen at the beginning of holiday
weekends?” I wondered aloud.
I began to think of all the ways this was going to effect me over the
weekend. I would have to sleep on the couch downstairs for the 3
nights until someone would come to fix it. I’d have to rearrange my
life so that I would spend as little time as possible in my upstairs
bedroom. Oh my, how totally inconvenient! Ggggggrrrrrrr!
It didn’t take long for my normal happy self to be replaced by a
pitiful, sad, cranky self. I imagined myself telling this tragic
story to audiences world wide, and I wondered who would play me in the
movie.
A few minutes into my “poor me” parade, my typical happy self regained
consciousness, and she tapped my disgruntled, pitiful self on the
shoulder.
“Ahem, excuse me,” she said meekly, “But, um, aren’t you the girl who
tells everyone how to have a positive attitude, even when they’re in
tough circumstances?”
“Uhhhh…” Pitiful self said, her face turning a lovely shade of red,
“Well, umm… That was before our AC quit working.”
Happy Self grinned sweetly. (That little goody-two-shoes.) “And don’t
you tell everyone to focus on the positive things instead of the
negative? You can be grateful that at least the downstairs AC is
working. And at least you have a house to live in.”
Pitiful Self threw up her hands in surrender. “Okay, you’re right.”
My inner struggle finally over with, I lay down on the floor as a sign
of surrender.
“Okay, Papa,” I prayed, “Here I am. I can’t change the fact that the
AC is broken, but you can. So, of course my first request would be
that you please fix it for me. But, if you don’t want to, that’s
okay. I know that I’ll be fine either way. Please grant me the grace
to deal with whatever happens, moment by moment. It’s only by your
grace that I am able to do anything.”
By this time, Pitiful Self had packed her duffel bag and hit the road,
and Happy Self was back at the steering wheel. A gentle peace floated
through me, and I felt ready to tackle anything.
“Sleeping on the sofa won’t be so bad,” I thought, “I’ll just pretend
I’m camping out. Maybe we can toast marshmallows in the fireplace.”
I went back to my computer and worked a little harder to ignore the
sweat that was forming on my forehead. About a half an hour later, I
had a thought.
“Hey Mom,” I called, “Can we turn the air back on up here? Just to
see if it might work?”
A minute later, she turned it on, and…
Yep! It was working! I’m not even kidding! It started blowing
glorious cold air all over the place! You should have heard the
hootin’ and hollerin’ that came out of my mouth! Woohoo! I suddenly
knew how the Oceanic 6 must have felt when they finally got off that
silly island on the show “Lost”! (Okay, so maybe not quite the same
thing.) What a relief!
It’s been almost 24 hours since then, and everything is still working
great. So, what’s the moral of my story?
No seriously, I’m asking you. Did you learn anything?

Hey! Guess what! I’m on Twitter now! Check it out at
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Lesson from Nature

I had one of those “life lessons” last week while out taking a walk around the block.  Several years ago I had hired a rather interesting character to do some landscaping.  He came recommended.  He had a drinking problem and showed up for work when he needed more money for booze.  One of the things he did was plant a tree in my yard that looked like a bare naked, but very tall, stick.  Over the past few years I have watched that stick, season after season, refuse to show any sign of life.  I even had it moved to a more prominent spot in my front yard, hoping it would feel compelled to produce.  Nothing!  I’ve pondered several times on whether I should just have it dug up and removed.  But, something kept me from giving up on the stick.  I had really just sort of forgotten about it and decided to enjoy the stick for who it really was, with no expectation of any more.  Well….while walking last week, I stopped abruptly in my tracks!  I looked up and realized the stick was a beautiful, fully bloomed and flowering tree.  When this happened, I do not know.  I had stopped worrying, fretting and pondering on the stick.  You know where I’m going with this…don’t you!  There’s a spiritual lesson in there…..sometimes we can worry ourselves sick over something we should just give to God.  He makes everything beautiful in His time.  I have no idea why the stick couldn’t produce sooner.  Maybe just like our lives, there were things going on that hindered it’s growth.  We should never give up on ourselves or our dreams.  We just need to move forward and trust God.    Maybe one day we’ll look up and see the blooms!  Blessings to all my friends on the path from stick to fully blooming tree!    Karen